They Are Everywhere

Remembering that sex predators attack their victims on average, 113 times, before they are arrested the first time, consider the FBI data base for sex offenders - those arrested.. After saying that -- this month in Florida, the spokesman for the Florida Department of Children and Families was arrested on child pornography charges. Two victims have been identified, one of whom the spokesman may have met through his job. In June 2007, a man who once headed Virginia's American Civil Liberties Union and was also a youth sports coach pleaded guilty to buying child pornography. He downloaded hundreds of images - some of children as young as four years old. In 2006, an employee of Northrop Grumman Corporation pleaded guilty to transporting child pornography images from his home in Montgomery, Alabama, to his job site in Saudi Arabia. If you want a real eye-opener, peruse the press release section of Project Safe Childhood. According to their website, "Project Safe Childhood (PSC) aims to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children." Here is a brief list of cases from their website:

• A high school teacher and girls' soccer coach in Texas sentenced for possessing child pornography
• A former high school teacher at a Baptist church in Oregon sentenced for possession of child pornography
• Former high school basketball coach sentenced in Oregon for distributing child pornography
• The chief operating officer of the National Children's Museum arrested in Virginia for distributing child pornography
• A Gwinnett County, Georgia, pharmacist indicted for possessing child pornography
• Guilty plea from a Memphis attorney for possession and receipt of child pornography
• A Naval Chief Petty Officer pleading guilty to Transportation of Visual Depictions of Minors Engaging in Sexually Explicit Conduct
• A former guidance counselor at an Oregon elementary school sentenced for receiving and possessing child pornography
• A Maryland gymnastics teacher working with children from five to 15 years old pleading guilty to receiving child pornography after being caught with a massive collection of child pornography
• A former Hidalgo County Detention Officer in Texas convicted of receiving child pornography..................................................

On, and on - there are many, many more indictments, arrests and convictions listed on this site, and if you take a look at your local Federal Bureau of Investigation's website and their press release section, you will find even more. Unfortunately, with the advent of the Internet age comes a greater danger from these predators. Now pornographic images may be bartered, bought and sold with the click of a mouse. And as the list above shows, that might just be by someone you or your child came into contact with today. To learn how to protect your children from Internet dangers, check out Project Safe Childhood and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Child Pornography: The Predators are Everywhere

SOUND FAMILIES  The American family may be under stress, but most children still live in two-parent households, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.Over all, 7 in 10 children live with two parents, about two-thirds live with two married parents, and about 6 in 10 live with both biological parents, according to the latest analysis, which is drawn from 2004 surveys. In 1970, 85 percent of children were living with two parents and 11 percent with their mother only, proportions that shifted to a little more than 70 percent and slightly more than 20 percent, respectively, in 1990.The comparable figures in 2004 were about 70 percent and 23 percent. The figures suggest that the tumultuous shifts in family structure since the late 1960s have leveled off since 1990. “We’re not seeing the rapid change that was going on between 1970 and 1990,” said Rose M. Kreider, a Census Bureau demographer and author of the study of children’s living arrangements. “Evidently, we’re at a place where things are not moving very fast.”Still, more than 1 in 4 children were living with only one parent. The proportion who lived with two parents varied widely by race and ethnicity — 87 percent of Asians, 78 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 68 percent of Hispanics and 38 percent of blacks. Among the nearly 19 million children living with their unmarried biological mothers, 18 percent were living in households where the mother had a partner.Over all, 94 percent of the nation’s more than 73 million children were living with at least one biological parent, 8 percent lived with at least one stepparent, 2 percent lived with at least one adoptive parent, nearly 4 percent were living without either parent, and a little more than 2 percent were living with their grandparents only. Nearly 4 in 10 children lived with at least one sibling. Most Children Still Live in Two-Parent Homes, Census Bureau ...